Loosely Coupled Payload Transport System with Robot Replacement
This addresses battery constraints in multi-robot systems for payload transport, but it is incremental as it builds on existing scheduling and replacement mechanisms.
The paper tackles the problem of limited battery life in multi-robot payload transport systems by developing an algorithm for robot replacement, which increases operational time beyond individual robot battery limits through simulations and experiments.
In this work, we present an algorithm for robot replacement to increase the operational time of a multi-robot payload transport system. Our system comprises a group of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots traversing on a known trajectory. We design a multi-robot system with loosely coupled robots that ensures the system lasts much longer than the battery life of an individual robot. A system level optimization is presented, to decide on the operational state (charging or discharging) of each robot in the system. The charging state implies that the robot is not in a formation and is kept on charge whereas the discharging state implies that the robot is a part of the formation. Robot battery recharge hubs are present along the trajectory. Robots in the formation can be replaced at these hub locations with charged robots using a replacement mechanism. We showcase the efficacy of the proposed scheduling framework through simulations and experiments with real robots.